June 2013 tied with 2006 as the fifth-warmest June across global land and ocean surfaces, at 1.15 degrees above the 20th-century average of 59.9 degrees. / National Climatic Data Center

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News Journal

You know the drill by now – sunny, hot, humid weather will once again be the rule for Friday.

Naturally, yet another heat advisory has been issued for us, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, although at least for those in urban areas it’s the high temperatures overnight that have become increasingly wearing on a lot of people.

High temperatures have reached 91 degrees at Mansfield’s Lahm Airport for four days in a row now. We could make it five on Friday.

This is all about to come to a rather dramatic end, however, as a strong cold front is headed this way. Thunderstorms have already set up in a long line across Wisconsin into upper Michigan, and should be in our area tonight.

That will be the first round of convection. There should be another during the late morning or early afternoon Saturday. High straight-line winds and perhaps some hail will be the biggest threats. Most locations should only receive about half an inch of rain.

As a result of the frontal boundary’s passage, Saturday’s temperatures will be held to the 80s for highs, and Sunday should be beautiful, with sunshine, a high temperature only around 80 and, most especially, low humidity levels.

It won’t last. Well, temperatures are expected to remain seasonal through next week, but the mugginess will return as soon as Monday as troughiness becomes established over Ohio. In other words, another wet pattern will dig in. It remains to be seen how long it will last or just how wet it will be.

Climatologists have long noted now that, while the globe’s temperatures are still rising, the rate of that climb has slowed down noticeably. During the years when temps were really skyrocketing, in the 1990s and early 2000s, there was either an El Nino or La Nina anomaly in the equatorial Pacific Ocean practically every month.

According to the U.S. Climate Prediction Center, the equatorial Pacific hasn’t seen either of those patterns for 15 straight months now. What’s more, these neutral conditions are expected to continue into the fall. Could there be a connection?

Below are the weather statistics for Thursday, July 18, at my location 4 miles north-northwest of Fredericktown, Ohio: